Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- gui:architecture [2020/01/22 21:34] – [Complex Deployment Farm] benjamin
+++ gui:architecture [2024/01/28 10:18] (current) – benjamin
@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 === Run as Application or Service ===
-You can run FFAStrans as a portable application instead of installing it as Windows Service as described here: [[installation]]. This mode should **only be used for testing** but not for production use.
+You can run FFAStrans as a portable application instead of installing it as Windows Service as described here: [[installation]]. It is recommended to install and run as a service in production critical environments.
 ===== Typical Scenarios =====
-{{:deployment_options.jpg?400|}}
+{{gallery>:deployment_options.jpg?400x320&800X800&lightbox}}
 ==== Simple Deployment Single Server ====
-You can run ffastrans on a standalone PC without the need for further Hard- and Software. In this case the installation files and Media files are on the local drives of your PC.
+You can run FFAStrans on a standalone PC without the need for further Hard- and Software. In this case the installation files and Media files are on the local drives of your PC.
 In case your C:\ Drive is not very large to handle Media Files, make sure to configure the FFAStrans cache location to reside on D:\ or any other drive, as described in [[installation]]
@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
-As described above, the Quorum is a SMB (AKA Samba) location that contains the FFAStrans installation Files when running a transcoding farm (or better processing Farm).
+As described above, the Quorum is a Windows Share location that contains the FFAStrans installation Files when running a transcoding farm (or better processing Farm).
 The Quorum will only contain minimal amounts of data, e.g. control files and log files. In difference to the cache location that contains temporary per job working files. You can see the Quorum as the database.
-Large enterprises typically have many different storages like different kinds of Netapp, EMC and such in place. If you are in a position to choose from one of many storages it is recommended to choose the one that has the highest uptime. Often this might be the storage that is also used by the central email location.
+Private persons and small companies are recommended to elect one of the servers in the farm to the "Master" and create a shared location where they share the FFAStrans installation files with all members of the farm.
-Private persons and small companies are recommended to elect one of the servers in the farm to the "Master" and create a shared location where they share the FFAStrans installation files with all members of the farm. Why?
+For larger setups **we strongly recommend to set up a small Windows VM** that does nothing but serve a share for the ffastrans installation files. Setups with Linux SMB and similar often lead to problems.
-There are 2 things to consider about the Quorum location:
-) **Functionality:** compatibility to Microsoft SMB Protocol, file locking mechanisms etc...
-  * FFAStrans uses files as a replacement for a database. It relies on the Storage to be able to handle parallel access to files in perfect manner
-  * There are many SMB Servers out there, e.g. Samba. As a perfect example, Samba is a working SMB server but when it comes to little details like especially concurrent file access, Samba is not a very good way to go. Lots of small storage vendors use Samba server for serving SMB shares. Big vendors drive their own SMB server implementation.
-  *
-) **Availability:** the central Quorum should have higher availability than all servers of the farm
-  * Be aware that Functionality always goes over availability
 ---------------------------------------------